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I have been contacted lately by a few companies wanting to know if we can fill Adelaide maternity-leave vacancies for them. I hadn't considered this but with the new paid maternity-leave system in Australia, and a lot of women being in marketing, I thought I would look into it further.
I spoke to our friends at HR consultancy Art of Staff and Shoana McManus gave me some great information on the key benefits of hiring a agency rather than a contract employee.

There are multiple reasons why you should consider filling a marketing maternity-leave vacancy with an agency like Chilli Chocolate Marketing rather than employing someone for a contracted term.

The biggest reason is of course the simple financial benefit - you don't have to pay salary plus super plus Workcover plus insurance plus HR and IT. Oncosts are often worth up to 1/3 of the annual salary of a staff member. We have that covered already! You can pay us a predetermined fee for the duration of the contract, paid in instalments, and the total can be substantially less than the cost of hiring a new staff member - on who will still need to get up to speed upon arrival.

What I am hearing is that often you the employer may be placed in a position of paying the maternity leave and the new employee until the government reimbursement is paid... and that payment doesn't always come quickly.

There are bigger financial benefits - you get a professional marketing executive who can hit the ground running. Time is money and that wont be wasted when the KPIs are set and measured. We bring a variety of experiences and lessons learned from a wide range of clients which can lead to better outcomes, increased creativity, and more productive ideas.

Chilli Chocolate Marketing are a reputable organisation with a professional identity to protect so you will be getting someone who is invested in making you and us look great. We have a professional reputation to uphold so our business relies on always performing at the top of our game. Contractors can usually do the work in less time than it takes to get a staff member to do it as the staff member will be pulled into all sorts of extra curricular office activities that a contractor will avoid.

Also political issues won't be a concern - we leave at the end of the contract and the person taking parental leave has no uncertainty about whether they will have a job on their return - there are no internal staff to be jockeying for the position. We're not there to make friends or enemies and we are not staff members looking to advance up a corporate ladder. This makes it much easier to maintain professional integrity and focus on fulfilling the KPIs set out in the marketing plan.

The bonus is that if your procedures and policies need to be improved or replaced you will have a professional marketing resource in place to advise and assist with those changes. Importantly as well is that you don't always get the right people for contract roles. You are limited to those people who don't mind being out of a job at the end of a contract or someone who is going to disrespect the concept of maternity leave and actively pursue the position for him or herself.

This may not even be limited to maternity leave - you may need someone to come in full-time for a contract period to get your e-marketing set up and your marketing staff trained to manage it internally.

We talk all the time to our clients and potential clients about the benefits of using Chilli Chocolate Marketing as your out-sourced marketing team; to help businesses through the challenges of maternity leave we take the next step and become your in-house out-sourced marketing team.

Marketing experts -- with benefits. If your business could use our help, call us today on (08) 8210 3399!

(Special thanks to Shoana McManus of Art of Staff for her assistance with this post)